The Doctor and the Champions
by galli-fresh
Summary: The tenth Doctor has lost many a companion, Rose and Martha being the hardest to handle. But what will he do with three companions at his side?
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor, grieving over the loss of his third companion, Martha, decided to take a trip back to Earth, decidedly a few months after the notorious attack of the Master. None of the human race remembered, of course apart from Martha, her family, and a select few others who were involved in the year and one day of absolute hell. He wanted to give them time to heal, time to fix their bonds and become a normal family again. But of course, nothing the Doctor does ever goes to plan. He was only looking to pop in for a cup of tea, and leave again. But no, no, no, the universe had different plans for him.

He landed in the middle of London, as he often does with his T.A.R.D.I.S., the beautiful blue police box which he'd quite clearly fallen in love with through the years of it being by his side. His one true everlasting companion, the one living thing he couldn't screw up, as he put it in his gaping mind. He stepped out to see the sun glaring down at him, glancing up and shielding his eyes, he heard a familiar voice which sent a shiver down his spine for the umpteenth time.

"_Delete! Delete! Delete!_" He heard it, the infamous electronic voice, the stomping feet, almost melodic.

"_GET DOWN!_" A British young woman's distressed voice screamed from the distance. "_CAN'T YOU HEAR ME? GET DOWN!_"

"_I'd listen to her if I was you, mate._" Another young woman stood beside him, pulling his coattail down behind a large rock.

He heard the sound of a sonic, and a crashing noise, before the sound of metal stomping feet ceased.

"_All clear?_" The voice belonging to the second girl questioned from behind the rock, peaking over slightly.

"_It's safe, you can come out Lydia._" The first voice yelled, slightly panting.

"_And who are you? You must be mad, standing out here alone, as if the Cyber Men wouldn't catch you._" The first voice continued as the Doctor and the second girl, who now had a name, Lydia, stood up from behind the rock.

"_I'm the Doctor, pleased to meet you. What year is it, if I may ask?_"

"_It's 2027, have you had a bit too much to drink, mate? Would explain what you're doing out here._" The first girl continued. "_I'm Freya, that's Lydia. We work for Torchwood, but w prefer to call ourselves free-lance rebels, working to stop the Cyber Men age._"

"_Ah, got here a little late, but I'm always on time for a good rebellion. If the Cyber Men could catch me, how come they couldn't catch you two?" _The Doctor asked scratching his head and glancing around, slightly frightful at what the world might of become.

"_We have these." _Lydia stated, pointing to a small chained necklace around her neck, supporting a green pendant. "_New technology from Torchwood, basically makes it so they can't really notice you, but we can notice each other._"

Freya unzipped her bag quickly pulling out a third necklace, and handing it over to the Doctor. "_We always keep spares if we meet a stray, though lately it's been unlikely. Everyone's either in the institute or in line to be "upgraded"_" She said making air quotes around the word upgraded.

"_What's the institute?_" The Doctor asked, confusion crossed his mind. He had so many questions. "_And, hold on, how in the world did you stop that Cyber Man all on your own?_"

"_The institute is like an underground housing type thing, started by Torchwood, of course. It's where all the un-upgraded, people who value their lives go to keep safe._" Lydia said with a grin, "_I thought of it and I got a good majority of Cardiff and London to safety in the past few months, I'm very proud of it._"

"_And I stopped it with this._" Freya pulled a metal objected out of the pocket of her army jeans, slightly bigger than the sonic screwdriver but not by much. "_It's a sonic pistol, fit for a small pocket. Doesn't have much ammo, we only use the small ones to fight one man attacks usually. Designed by Torchwood, by the best for the best._" She added with a smirk, suggesting she had designed the sonic pistol.

"_C'mon we'll take you up to Torchwood, you say you're the Doctor, eh? We've been dying to meet you, we've heard so many stories._" Lydia said, a slight excitement in her voice, as if she was trying to hide it. Freya rolled her eyes, and laughed, mumbling "_Try not to make us sound too desperate, Lyd._"


	2. Chapter 2

They arrived in downtown Cardiff, walking swiftly past the building, crossing the small bridge, and arriving at the Torchwood "visitors center." They stepped into the musky decoy room, the Doctor looking at the girls in confusion.

"_This is Torchwood? Wow I thought it'd be a little… well… bigger._" He stated glancing around the small room, and landing his eyes on reception.

The girls glanced at each other and laughed to themselves. "_No, this is the decoy visitors room_" Lydia said, as she reached behind the desk and pressed a medium-sized black button. The wall behind him opened slowly with a loud creaking. Freya grabbed the Doctors arm pulling him past the door into a large corridor, they turned to the right and walked swiftly to the lift at the end. The door shut and they were taken downstairs, the door behind them opened top to bottom and they stepped out. The Doctor looked around the huge room past the heavy round door, he looked a little impressed. "_This is Torchwood._" Freya said stepping past the round door and opening the gate.

"_Ah, well… It's… nice._" The Doctor said glancing up at the ceiling then across the concrete stairs. He saw a familiar face, through the desks and the glass wall separating them, hard as stone glaring at papers, searching through folders. Captain Jack Harkness, the Doctor never really could get rid of him.

Jack glanced up and looked back down at his paper work, before realizing who he'd just seen. He looked up again, swiveling his chair around to face the entrance, with his famous full toothed grin. He pushed himself off his chair, and Lydia smiled at him quickly moving up the stairs and to her desk.

"_Well, well, well, if it isn't the Doctor himself. I've been waiting a long time to see that face._" Jack said with a smile. Freya grinned at Lydia as Jack walked past her desk. Lydia, blushing slightly, rolled her eyes and went back to looking at her desktop.

The Doctor laughed looking up at Jack. "_I like what you've done with the place, Captain. Very scientific._" He said sarcastically to the well-dressed man in front of him.

"_I see you've met my two favorite girls, they've been working so hard to keep this place running after the Cybermen age started. Come on up here, Doctor. I'll show you around." _Jack said with a friendly smile. Although, the year and one day of hell was more than hell for Jack he still had loads of respect and love for the Doctor. He would do it all again for that man.

Freya cleared her throat walking up the steps past Jack and to Lydia's desk. The men walked around the corner, Jack's voice describing everything around them faded with the distance.

"_You know you like him, Lydia. Stop beating around the bush and ask him on a date._"

"_I couldn't, it's not professional. We work together, fighting aliens for God sake. I can't ask him on a date. What will I say? Middle of a Cybermen attack and we're close to death "Hey Jack, want to get a meal some time? Maybe some fish and chips?" Be reasonable Freya._" Lydia said with a sarcastic tone, to cover up her embarrassment. She didn't think she was that obvious, but perhaps she was wrong. "_And what about you? I saw that look you gave the Doctor, you so fancy him._"

Freya scoffed and rolled her eyes again, turning away and sitting at her desk. Ianto came from the entrance with a worried look. "_The Cybermen, they're getting smarter. More people are being found, and the more people found the more Cybermen we need to kill._"

Freya and Lydia glanced at each other.

"_We could go out again, see if we can destroy anymore._" Lydia said nodding at Freya to confirm.

"_I'll come with you! I love a good Cybermen fight, did I tell you about how I destroyed the race once? I don't know how they got back, but they always find a way._" The Doctor said with a smirk coming back with Jack from their welcome tour.

"_Now, come on Doctor you can't go out there. They've gotten stronger, you don't know what you're dealing with. It's hard enough to kill one, there are hundreds, maybe thousands out there. And that's just in Cardiff._" Jack said "_Somehow one of them survived, we haven't found out how yet but it did. It was about 8 months ago. It was alone. We couldn't figure out how all of it got started, and then we realized. One of the converters survived. It was in London, underground. No one even knew it existed until the one Cyberman got to it. That's when everything went to hell. Literally._"

"_Well, it can't be worse than the Daleks, or maybe it can… Either way, I want to come with, it's not that dangerous, besides I have my handy-dandy sonic screwdriver._"

"_What's a sonic screwdriver going to do? Fix some loose nails?_" Freya laughed looking up at the Doctor.

"_Oh it can do loads more than fix a loose nail._" He said with a wink turning on his heel to the door. "_Are you two coming?_"

Lydia pushed herself up grabbing her long coat, and swinging it around her shoulders. Freya followed, grabbing her sonic pistol and shoving it into her pocket and striding past them both to the weapons room. "_I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather have some guns to keep myself alive. Don't worry, Doctor, you can have your sonic screwdriver, I'll just save your life once more. I'm not much of a fighter but when it comes to keeping me and my friends safe, I take all the necessary precautions. Especially with Cybermen._"

The girls walked swiftly into the weaponry, past all of the small and large guns to the back wall, grabbing too huge cannon like rifles, and slinging them on their backs. "_Anti-Cyberman special weapons, designed to kill at least three at a time._" Freya said holding one out to the Doctor.

"_Oh, no thanks. I'm not much of a gun man._"

"_Suit yourself, you'll be with us anyway. We're basically the Cybermens worst nightmare nowadays._" Lydia said with a laugh. "_And they don't even know what we look like._" Freya added, patting the Doctors shoulder and walking past him to the door.

"_Alright, boys. We'll be back as soon as possible. Jack we'll keep you updated on all the Cybermen in town, we'll try our best to keep them away from base, but no promises. If Ianto is right about them getting stronger, you might be under attack." _Freya stated to the crew, nodding up at Jack.

"_Just be safe, now that the Doctor is here this is when the Cybermen Age ends. But we don't need to lose anymore people. I've lost half my crew, I can't lose my best girls._" Jack said saluting them both and grinning at Lydia before turning back to his office.

The girls and the Doctor walked past the gate, closing the large round door behind him. "_Did you see that grin he gave you? He likes you, you need to ask him to dinner or something._"

"_Stop it, Freya! I can't it's too embarrassing._" Lydia said blushing slightly.

The girls glanced back at the Doctor. "_You alright, mate? I hope you're ready for this battle, it's going to be a huge one._"

The Doctor nodded. They reminded him of the eager spirits he usually took with him on his journey's through time and space. He didn't want to lose two more companions, and he knew that would come at some point but for some reason he had a nagging feeling that he should ask them to come with him in his T.A.R.D.I.S. adventuring through the universe, saving planets.


	3. Chapter 3

"_Alright, Doctor. Don't make a sound. We have to move quickly and quietly. Once they notice you you're gone. That's what happened to the others. Just stay with us, and make sure you're unnoticed._" Lydia said with a slight worry in her tone. Both her and Freya had a gut wrenching feeling that this could be their last battle.

They made their way to the center of town, the place where all of the Cybermen were bound to be. And surely enough, they were there. At least 200, lining the sidewalks for a mile. Side by side with barely 5 feet between them. The fear in their mind got worse. How could they take out three at a time, without being noticed when there were hundreds?

The Doctor, rethinking his choice of no weaponry, walked up to one, staying about 6 feet away from it, and staring into the dark sockets that were once it's eyes. "_You could have been so brilliant, if only I could have helped you._" He mumbled to himself, he'd been feeling too nostalgic these past couple of days, he couldn't keep it in any longer. Guilt filled his mind of every wrong he'd ever done. What if he was the evil he'd been fighting all of these years?

Freya stood beside him, glancing at him with a look of pity. She felt sorry for the man who'd been lost and alone for so many years, but instead of showing it she stood up straight and glanced back at Lydia, motioning for her to come along.

She pointed up ahead where it looked as if the line of Cybermen ended. Nodding to Lydia, signalling that that was where they were headed. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew where the Cybermen were leading was where they had to be.

"_Follow the metallic brick road_." Lydia mumbled sarcastically.

The pang of fear hit Freya's stomach as they walked past the metal men. One after the other, it didn't seem to stop. They made as little noise as possible, the only sound was the scuff of their feet, unnoticed by the Cybermen while they had their necklaces. As they walked, the Doctor got a completely insane idea. He stopped and looked around at them. Freya and Lydia looked at him confused, and frightened. He stared back for a second, and then quickly and steadily pulled his necklace off.

The girls gasped and covered their mouths giving him looks of disbelief.

"_Delete!" _Four or five Cybermen said in unison, he looked at them as brave as ever and quickly pulled his sonic screwdriver out.

"_Take me to your masters, I'm not compatible, you know who I am. You know what I did. Now take me to your masters and your lives will be spared._" The Doctor yelled, pointing his sonic in all directions, making sure to keep his eyes away from the girls.

"_We do not care who you are, we will delete you. There is no room in the system for failures. No time for incompatible disgraces of the human.2 race._"

The Doctor, fearing this, quickly held his sonic to the Cybermens head. It bust open, spreading bits of Cybermen everywhere, leaving the body to fall to the ground. "_I said, take me to your masters and your lives will be spared._"

"_We will take you to our masters, they will decide if you are compatible or not. You will be deleted, or upgraded. No exceptions._"

The Doctor grinned to the girls quickly and mouthed. "_Trust me._" They got the hint and followed quietly behind the Cybermen, giving each other an unsure scared glance.

They got past the mile of Cybermen in about 45 minutes, the Doctor making puns and innuendos the entire way and scoffing when his escorts didn't laugh at his seemingly hilarious jokes. Meanwhile the girls staying at least ten feet away were whispering to each other.

"_Jack was right about him, he's really out there._" Lydia said under her breath. "_Not scared of anything, that one._"

Freya grinned. "_I know, it's kind of sexy, innit?_" She whispered, loud enough for the Doctor to hear. He glanced back and winked with a smirk.

They got to a tall, large building, and stood rather close the Cybermen and the Doctor as they walked in to be sure they weren't locked out, because that would be tragic.

The building they were in was round inside and seemed smaller than it looked, though the outside was a perfect square and rather large. Freya noticed small doors around the room, four of them. Presumably to get into the walls, she thought. She tapped Lydia on the shoulder, pointing at the doors, Lydia nodded, she noticed them too. They decided to leave the doctor behind, and go exploring for themselves. Though they'd been working on destroying these Cybermen for a long time, they'd never been inside the actual building for transformation. They walked quickly and quietly past the two standing Cybermen by each door, they stared into the blank metal heads, terrified of what might happen once they opened the door, Freya grabbed the knob twisting it slowly and it came to a halt inside her hand. "_Locked._" She mouthed to Lydia, sighing in disappointment, they quietly scuffled to the other side, where a second door was standing.

The Doctor and his escorts, halfway up the stairs now, were quickly and steadily going to the top of the square building, which looked like it had about 5 or 6 stories. No way to tell, since there weren't any windows.

"_Does your master let you decorate your heads? I think you'd look good with some drawn on hair, maybe some makeup. Wait, you're a girl right? You seem like a girl, I don't want to offend you. but can you tell?_"

"_No talking._"

"_I'm just wondering what your gender is. Blimey, conversations with Cybermen._" The Doctor glanced behind him, the girls were gone. He figured they'd stay with him to find out who their creator was, but they must have got a little preoccupied.

Downstairs the girls were at the final door, the others were locked, obviously, and they needed to know what was inside the walls. There were only eight Cybermen in this room, but there could be more in the building. They nodded to each other and walked swiftly to the center of the room, pointed their weapons at two opposite doors.

"_One... two... three!_" They shot, four together, and turned and shot the other four. Freya grabbed her sonic pistol running to the door opposite her.

"_We have to get out, they'd have heard it, they'll surely notice us if we're the only ones in the room._" Lydia said watching Freya shoot the handle of the door off.

"_Never need a key again with this beauty._" Freya said laughing slightly and blowing at the end of the pistol, before shoving it back into her pocket and walking slowly into the room, coming to a complete stop and staring at the complete mess in front of her. Lydia came from behind her after closing the door, she stood next to her and covered her mouth.

"_Are these...?_" Lydia said heaving slightly and dropping her hands to her knees

"_Yeah, failed Cybermen. Incompatible I'm guessing._" Freya nodded, wiping her forehead and walking toward them.

In front of them laid at least one hundred dead, deformed bodies. Children, mothers, fathers, grandparents. All ages, all types, all with bits and pieces of metal sticking out of their severely torn flesh. Lydia took a staggered breath grabbing Freya's arm.

"_Come on, we can't stay here they'll find us. We left a mess out there._"

Freya got her sonic pistol out again and shot at a gate that was blocking their way up a large twisting case of stairs. Lydia grabbed her back and got out a new device, and used it to fix the gate, shutting it behind her. They climbed the stairs quickly.

"_At least in here we'll be able to hear the stomping loud and clear. It'll give us a head start on running._" Lydia said quietly, "_Or hiding._"

"_I should check up on Jack, tell him how everything's going. He hasn't heard form us he's got to be worried._" Freya said pulling out her earpiece and turning it on. "_Jack, it's Freya. We're in the building farthest from Torchwood, there's a line of Cybermen just standing, waiting for something._"

"_Probably for the attack. You know how you said everything in the institute was secure? It's not. The Cybermen have tracking devices all over town, Ianto hacked into it. They know where every living thing in the whole of the United Kingdom is. Including you, you need to get out of there._" Jacks voice rang through her head, including them? What is that supposed to mean? How are they supposed to get out when they know exactly where they are?

"_We can't leave, the Doctor is with them, he's upstairs, meeting their creator, their master the thing controlling all of this. We can't give up, Jack._"

"_Just be careful then, it's kill or be killed out there, Freya. Make sure you kill above anything._"

Freya sighed and turned her ear piece off turning around to tell Lydia the new findings. She turned around to see nothing, she looked around the bend and then past her up the stairs. "_Lydia, this isn't funny where are you?_"

She didn't hear a response, she walked back down the stairs and across the room, there was nothing. She walked back to where they were standing feeling around the walls for a door, a cupboard, anything. But there was nothing.

From her experience calling out for her companion wasn't going to be much help in this situations, instead she readied her weapon and began looking, again for some sort of door. Her friend couldn't have been snatched out of thin air.


	4. Chapter 4

Freya walked the corridor quietly. The stairs wound slowly up and suddenly curved, indicating that she was by one of the four corners of the tall window-less building. The stairs suddenly stopped, and she found a door. There must have been a perception filter on the ceiling below because it just looked like dead space above, but there was clearly a number of levels to this strange building.

She knew Lydia had to have been taken up, she was in front of her, and there was no sort of door leading anywhere but up the metal staircase. She quietly tried opening the door, locked obviously. Everything had to be locked. Instead of using her sonic pistol, which she usually referred to she quietly got her lock picking items out of her bag. She slid in the long thin nail-file shaped tool and dug into the lock with a tweezer shaped item. She heard a faint _click_ and opened the door as slowly and quietly as possible.

The room was vacant with only a large table that looked similar to the ones used in operating rooms. On top of it was Lydia, she looked drunkenly over at Freya, and suddenly her eyes got frantic, she tried moving her mouth but nothing came out. Freya, confused and worried glanced out of the corner of her eye. She saw him, a round short man behind her, she only saw the figure, and she was ready the second she caught a glimpse. A thin hand touched her shoulder and Freya turned quickly and stealthily with her sonic pistol pointing straight at the old mans face.

"_What do you want, and how did you find us._" She stated the question as more of a demand. "_Let me warn you, this can take down a Cyberman, want to find out what it can do to a human?_"

"_I-I-I j-just work for them... I'm sorry, please don't kill me... I just work for them, they have my family and they promised and I-I, just, please, don't kill me._"

The old man stuttered and shook and looked frantically around the room before covering his face and backing away, then bending over and hugging himself he began to wince. Freya lowered her weapon.

"_Hey, it's alright just help us out, we're trying to change things, we're trying to help._" She had a pang of guilt before she realized what he'd just done to her closest friend and only companion these days. "_What did you do to her? Get her off that table._"

He obeyed quietly and quickly, walking toward the table and undoing the straps that were holding her down. He grabbed a needle filled with some sort of substance, which had Freya lifting her pistol again.

"_What is that, tell me before you do anything and I swear to God if you hurt her I'm shooting._" She pointed it square into his face, her guilt passed and now she was only worried about getting the Doctor and getting out alive.

"_I-I injected her with a sedative, she can't move or speak, I need to inject her w-with a substance that reverses it._"

Freya glanced at Lydia with a questioning look, Lydia nodded weakly. Freya glanced at the old man and nodded to him, lowering her weapon again. She leaned against the table, and waited.

"_It will take at least f-five minutes to kick in, the sedative is quick, but unfortunately reversing it takes a bit._"

"_Tell me who you are, and how you can see us. Now, please._" Freya's voice was hard and forceful, she glared at him until he got the nerve to reply.

"_I-I'm Albert Manchester. I was just h-here with my family I didn't know it was going to happen, I'm g-good with technology the man who started the Cybermen Age kept me, and told me he'd keep my family, my wife and my two girls, alive. I just needed to fix the converters, that's it._" He stuttered and his eyes welled up, Freya almost felt sorry for him. But anyone on the side of the Cybermen was an automatic enemy. She pushed her personal feelings aside and continued to listen. "_I can only see you because they have me wearing these strange keys, they cancel out perception filters, they wanted to make ones for all the Cybermen but they wouldn't work and I-I'm sorry, I'm only doing as I'm told, it's my family and my life at stake._"

Lydia slowly rose and began talking, her words slurred and pushed against each other like she was barely sober. "_I'mm finnne._" Her words were drawn out and slow, with barely a pause between them, Freya helped her off the large table.

"_Well, Albert Manchester, would you like to join the good side of this fight by telling us how we can get to wherever the Doctor is?_" Freya said holding Lydia up with one arm and shoving her pistol into her pocket as a sign of surrender.

Albert quickly walked over toward the far left wall, pressing one of the smaller panels in making part of the wall cave in a few inches and move up slowly, revealing a wall of controls, camera's, and equipment.

"_I can make it look like you both aren't here by dampening your signals to the servers, if I can just trick it into thinking you've died._" He typed in a series of numbers and letters, and clicked several blue buttons and our red pulsing signals faded slowly before disappearing off the screen. "_That'll do it, now we just need to find the Doctor's signal._"

The Doctor was in the highest level of the building, it seemed to take ages to get there and soon he was walking in to see the well-dressed tall man.

"_Ah, Doctor. You look younger than the last time I saw you._" The man said turning to face him. The Doctor looked at him with a confused face. He had no idea who this man was, let alone when they'd met or what had gone on to make the look he gave the Doctor so sinister.

"_I'm sorry, erm, that's the thing... Time isn't linear, it doesn't go exactly the way you think it does so I really have no idea who you are._" The Doctor smiled slightly and looked at the man with apologetic eyes.

"_It's funny, Doctor. You say such silly ridiculous things about time, and space, and you never think about these people. These little tiny specks who have to go through time in a straight forward path. While every day getting weaker and closer to their dying day._" The man stepped closer to the Doctor, a look of disgust crossed his face and the Doctor felt suddenly very unsafe, a feeling he usually had. "_You never think, Doctor, you never wonder how us tiny humans feel. As you may already know, I found the one Cyberman wandering in the alleys. I knew it was my one true chance at finding you again. I won't give away what happened, or what you did that made me hate you oh so very much, because, you see, time isn't a straight line, as you say. I'm fearful that if I tell you, you might change the course of how this goes. Because, Doctor, today is the day I kill you. You'll die today, you'll be without a companion, without a blue box, without any means of escape. You will die, slowly and painfully._"

The Doctor realizing he wasn't truly alone in this situation sighed, and said under his breath. "_I'm so very sorry._"

"_What?_" The man whispered to the Doctor with a shocked look.

"_I said I'm sorry, because honestly, sir, I have no idea who you are or what happened but that thing that you just said, about me dying? It's not going to happen. Because I'm not alone._"

At precisely that moment, Freya, Lydia, and Albert burst through the door. Freya grabbed her large gun from around her shoulders and pointed it at the slow-moving Cybermen.

"_Doctor, do what you do best and get down._" She said with a grin before firing the gun and killing the three Cybermen in the room.

The Doctor smiled at her. "_Your timing could not have been better._"

Lydia walked quickly over to the well-dressed man across the room and pointed the large gun at him. "_Who the hell are you, and why are you doing this._" The question was a demand, which had become an ongoing trademark for the girls.

"_Go ahead shoot me, my dear. I have all of this equipment programmed, if I'm murdered every living thing in Cardiff get's a house call from a Cyberman, and they all get brought back here to get upgraded._" He stated with an evil laugh, almost taunting Lydia, egging her to do it. Freya came up behind her and pulled her back.

"_The last thing we need are more Cybermen. Albert, you genius, could you try to change the plans?_" Freya said grinning over to the old man who stood up straight and walked over to the control boards.

"_Hello, Albert was it? I'm the Doctor, and I'll be helping you with this technology this evening._" The Doctor grinned and pulled his sonic screwdriver out, and got to work with the old man.


	5. Chapter 5

Albert and the Doctor typed away at the large wall of screens and buttons, the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out, the high-pitched sonic sound rung in the girls ears as they pulled the tall man away from the machines.

"_Freya, you need to block that door. We'll have incoming in around 4 minutes._" the Doctor shouted to Freya across the room. She quickly stumbled across to the doorway tripping over spare Cybermen parts, she got to the door and gasped.

"_Little sooner than 4 minutes, Doctor._" She yelled quickly pulling her large gun around her shoulder and shooting the oncoming Cybermen one after the other. The last large blast pushed the remainder of the Cybermen down the stairs, giving Freya a chance to shut the door quickly. "_Lydia, I need the locky-thingy._" Freya yelled frantically

"_Locky-thingy, sounds extremely helpful and very scientific._" The Doctor muttered under his breath with a smirk, sonic-ing his way throughout the series of system blocks on the computer screen.

Lydia tossed Freya a small metal device with a series of designs on the front and back. The door bulged open and Freya pushed with all her might, keeping it closed and pressing the device onto the door. _45 seconds_, she thought, _45 second and this door will be so locked nothing can come through, you can hold it for 45 seconds_.

Lydia had dragged the tall man over to the far side of the room, away from the computers and away from the door and Freya.

"_Tell me who you are._" She stated, "_I can do a lot worse than kill you._

The man stared up at her laughing.

"_You won't hurt him._" The Doctors voice rang around the room, the man stared at him blankly. "_We don't hurt anyone, even if it's for answers._"

Lydia sighed, rolling her eyes. "_Fine, I'll just tie him up and make sure the ropes are extremely tight and uncomfortable._" She reached into her bag and pulled out ropes. She tugged the man up by his shirt collar and pulled his arms behind him, tying the ropes tightly, she'd learned how to do the best knots through Jack. She did the same with his feet and then quickly walked toward Freya, who had successfully locked the door and was now standing by the Doctor and Albert studying their actions thoroughly.

Lydia leaned onto the table and watched with Freya.

"_Right now we're just trying to hack into the system, it's full of passwords and blocks and dead-ends._" Albert stated, his stutter was gone and the confidence in his voice heightened since he joined forces with the girls.

"_Dead-ends?_" Freya asked with a confused look over to Albert.

"_Think of it like a maze._" the Doctor stated glancing over at Freya "_It's not a maze, but think of it as one if it helps. You could click a certain link, or press a certain button and instead of taking you one place it takes you to a sort of dead-end that's like "you're not getting anywhere" and it's going to take a few minutes to work out where we're going in the system, how to control the Cybermen and everything._"

Freya nodded still slightly confused but she went along with it. "_The door isn't going to last much longer, Doctor. Those Cybermen will find a way in sooner or later._"

"_Let's just hope it's later._" Lydia muttered walking over to check the doors stability.

"_I should really check back with Torchwood, they'll want to know what's happening._" Freya said pulling her earpiece out and walking toward the vacant corner of the room directly across from the door.

Lydia walked back toward the control table, and glanced at the Doctor. "_What's your plan?_"

"_Don't have one, funner that way._"

"_You're telling me we're counting on a man without a plan?_" Lydia's eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief.

"_Ah, don't worry, I'm good with thinking on the spot. Not to mention usually in these situations the answer is given right to me._" As he finished his sentence a large screen popped up on the monitor. It was the overview of the city, red pulsing dots, identical to the ones that indicated Lydia and Freya were in the building, were scattered across the screen. Blue dots were lined straight on each side of the roads, it had kept track of the Cybermen and the people.

Albert looked at the screen carefully through his large thick glasses. "_I can hack into the servers, the ones sending out signals for the Cybermen._" He said quietly "_There are faults in this system, and I've always thought so. Never bothered to say anything though, but now, now we can use them to our advantages. You see, Doctor, every Cyberman gets a signal from this computer and this computer alone, so if we change the signal going out to every Cyberman everywhere, or better yet stop the signal completely, the Cybermen will... well... die or change or become their own person, I'm not really sure which._"

The Doctor looked at Albert like he was completely mad, insane even. Then he smiled a full toothed smile and flung his arms around the man. "_You're ABSOLUTELY brilliant!_" He yelled. Freya glancing over her shoulder pressed her earpiece closer to her ear.

Jack's voice rang through her head. "_You're all safe? Everyone?_"

"_Yes everyone's safe, everyone's fine. And I'm pretty sure our new friend found a way to stop the Cybermen, all of them at once._" Freya smiled over at the group lingering over the controls, Lydia watching the two men work away at the controls.

"_Ianto and I have worked on some programs to help, but we'd need into the system, do you have the Torchwood cable that hooks up to the monitors?_"

"_I don't go anywhere without it._" Freya said with a grin. A loud bang from the door had her rushing toward the controls. "_Jack and Ianto want control, they can send out a signal faster and easier with less of this madness. You alright with that?_" She asked the Doctor and Albert as the banging on the door got louder and faster, the door creaking and caving in toward the room.

"_Yes by all means yes!_" Albert said, moving away from the controls. Freya plugged the cable into the monitor, stepping back and glancing toward the door.

"_Tell me when you've got it, and you need to hurry or we're not getting out of here alive._" She said into the earpiece waiting for a response.

Jack was yelling distantly, he didn't have his earpiece in.

"_JACK, HURRY UP OR YOUR BEST GIRLS ARE GOING TO BE DEAD._" Freya yelled loudly into the earpiece. She heard shuffling of papers and finally Jacks voice.

"_We have it, Ianto's sending the signal out._" Jack's low angered voice stated.

The door creaked louder, it was so close to snapping open. They all stared blankly at the doors. Lydia and Freya glanced at each other and quickly slung their large guns onto their shoulders pointing them square into the frame. They waited patiently for the banging to stop, for the door to finally creak and sling down onto the metal floor.

"_You guys need to hurry with this signal. What are you even doing? Stopped for a cup of coffee? We're under attack over here._" Freya frantically said into her earpiece. There was one loud crashing bang and the door came flinging down. through the door frame were at least 20 Cybermen that were visible, but the line of metal seemed to bend with the curve of the stair case, suggesting they were all lined up and ready to kill.

As soon as they were visible, the Cybermen froze.

"_Delete... Del...ete... De...le...te...De..._" In unison they all slowly powered down. They collapsed at their hips first and they all crumbled down the stair case. The group sighed together and the girls slung their guns back over their shoulders.

"_Thank you, Jack. Thank you._" Freya sighed with relief into the earpiece, pulling it out and throwing it back into her pocket.

The Doctor grinned at Freya and shoved his sonic screwdriver into his pocket. "_Told you it could do more than loosen a nail._" he said smugly as he walked past the girls to examine the seemingly dead Cybermen. Lydia walked quickly over to the tall man who still laid in his restraints in the corner. She picked him up by his collar, and pulled out her real handcuffs loosening the knots and putting them on his wrists.

"_You sir, are coming to Torchwood. You're officially under arrest and I'll see to it that your cell neighbor is a nice little weevil._" Lydia said loosening the knots around his feet and replacing the rope with ankle cuffs.

Freya looked at Albert, and smiled. "_Thank you for helping us. Do you know where your family is?_" Freya looked at him with a saddened face as his expression got grim. He glanced at the large monitors. Five dots pulsed on the screen, but nothing else was found. The five lonely dots, all in the same room. "_I'm sorry._" She reached out and touched his arm lightly, sighing. "_You knew all along, though. You've watched these screens for ages._"

"_I had a feeling, a dark cold feeling, when they died. I convinced myself they took them somewhere... somewhere else. I'd never seen the map of the entire city, so I made myself believe they weren't gone. But I knew... in my heart I knew._" He said, his voice cracking slightly. His stutter still hadn't come back, the old hunched over man was nowhere to be found. And in his place was someone who'd done his best to help, though he had nothing to gain but life without his loved ones. "_Doesn't change anything, I'm just glad it's over._"

The Doctor came joined the group with a smile. "_Well, we'd better get back with our prisoner and our champions._" he said gleaming at the girls and the old man.

They smiled and walked swiftly toward the door, pushing Cybermen bodies out of their way as they made it down the stairs.

* * *

They walked outside, the sun was close to setting. It would be another hour or two before dusk. They squinted at the path in front of them and began walking in the general direction of Torchwood.

"_Couldn't send us a car, no, no, too much petrol. We have to walk back to headquarters after saving the whole of the world._" Freya complained quietly and sarcastically to herself.

The Cybermen bodies filled the streets, and though they were unchanging and as dead as dead could be, they still filled the girls with fear. They walked a little quicker thinking about the warm cup of coffee waiting for them when they stepped into Torchwood headquarters.

* * *

They made it to downtown Cardiff, and stepped into the visitor's room, swiftly past the large doors, down the corridor and finally to the lift. It was a bit crowded, with a prisoner, the Doctor, the girls, and Albert pushed together in the small square room.

Finally on the bottom floor they walked past the large round door and the gate separating them from Jack and Ianto.

"_We brought you a surprise._" Lydia said with an uncontrollable smile at Jack, holding the tall man out to him. "_Still don't know his name or anything, but he's the cause of it all._"

Jack grinned and kissed her forehead, "_Lydia, you're fantastic. Hi, I'm Jack Harkness, I'll be escorting you to your cell now._"

"_Make sure you put him near the weevils!_" She shouted after him with a laugh.

Freya handed Albert a freshly brewed cup of coffee. He looked above him at the pterodactyl flying above his head, and around the room quietly as he took the cup and sipped it slowly.

Freya sighed, she felt bad for the poor old man who'd lost everything just to have to start again. She knew the small sedative and the retcon pill would be kicking in soon, they didn't have long to clean up the town, and get the people in the institute safely back to their homes.

Alberts eyes were slowly closing and everything around him became out of focus. He laid his head on the desk in front of him and drifted to sleep.

"_Alright gang, we have about 12 hours to supply retcon water to the whole of the institute, clean up the town, and get everyone home safely. You ready Ianto?_"

"_Retcon? What is retcon? What are you doing to them?_" the Doctor frantically looked at Freya.

"_Do you want them remembering the 8 months of their lives they lost? Retcon is a slight amnesia pill, it makes it seem like it was all a dream. A nasty bad dream. We have to._"

"_Why?_"

"_We've already got 4% of the town going off to the loony bin because they thought they saw Daleks flying outside their windows every evening. We can't have the whole town going mad on us, Doctor. It's our way of protecting them, keeping them safe from all the knowledge there is out there._" Lydia said looking at the doctor with her eyebrows scrunched up, a look of guilt in her eyes.

The Doctor nodded with a disappointed look. He knew it had to be done, or half of Cardiff would be denying it and the other half would be causing madness around the town. They weren't ready for that kind of power, not yet anyway.

Jack came back grinning. "_Ready to retcon?_" He asked with his famous grin. The team swiftly packed up the necessary equipment and headed out. The Doctor followed them. He needed a lift back to his TARDIS anyway.

* * *

He hopped out of the car as they got to London. He glanced at Lydia and Freya, taking a deep breath and turning to face them.

"_Come travel with me._" He stated moving his eyes from Lydia to Freya. "_You've had my back throughout this entire mission, you've saved my life twice in one day, and you're too courageous for your own good. You're just the type of girls I like, now come with me._"

Jack looked behind him at the girls, and then to the Doctor and smiled.

"_Go on girls, you can't deny an offer like that._"

The girls glanced at each other. They had nothing left in Cardiff or in London for that matter, it wouldn't hurt to leave. No one would miss them but the team, and it would be easy to keep in touch with them. Lydia gave Freya a questioning look. Freya nodded, and they hopped out of the car, sprinting toward the TARDIS with the Doctor at their side.

The Doctor pulled out his key and unlocked the TARDIS door slowly.

"_Now, I must warn you, this isn't just a normal police box... But you two knew that already didn't you?_" the Doctor said with a quick grin as he disappeared into the box. The girls looked at each other laughing and followed behind him.

They stopped dead in their tracks as they walked in.

"_It's... it's..._" Freya started a sentence but couldn't exactly finish. The Doctor held up a finger to his ear as if he was waiting for the phrase he loved so much to hear.

"_Bigger on the inside..._" Lydia finished it for her with the same tone of shock.

"_That's it! Yes, it is. Bigger on the inside and I love to be reminded._" And with that the TARDIS began shaking, moving, and making a loud whooshing noise that the Doctor was more than used to. "_Oh, by the way. We might experience a little big of turbulence on our journey, so you might want to hang on tight._"


End file.
